Prologue - The Betrayal (Act III)
“Are you sure?”
“Henry, my love, my wolf, am I ever not sure?” I teased the man before me, my fingers raking through the loose strands of his long black hair, the silken threads flowing between them like a river of shadows.
I lost myself in the feel of it, so didn’t notice when his arms surged forward to lift me from the ground and crush me to his naked chest. He span us around, hollering unintelligibly in celebration at our blessed news.
The Gods had blessed us with a child. A son that would one day rule the world we would create for him. In spite of my surprise at the sudden change in equilibrium, and the untold nausea my new found condition created as a result, I laughed with the infectious joy of my mate’s reaction. When he finally set me back upon my feet I stared up into eyes a black as midnight, eyes that had promised me the world, eyes that belonged to the man who had proven he was far more than empty promises.
“Our child will be powerful. He will rule with an iron fist! He will be the strongest King to have ever walked the earth, and he will rule without fear of the powerless apes behind whose skirt tails our current 'King' cowers. My love, you have given me everything I have ever wished for. What would you have of me? Name it, and it shall be yours.”
My Henry. Had he not yet learned? There was nothing beneath the stars I could want for; only to stay by his side forever. Only for him to take me with him to the heights he was destined to soar above.
“I wish only to stay by your side, my love, my Alpha, my wolf.” I purred at him, running my fingers across the many deep scars that decorated his torso. My lover was a warrior, a conqueror, and his body, his perfectly sculpted body, was painted with the markers of his success. “But my love, we must be careful. My condition makes me vulnerable. My magic must protect the life that is growing, my power will be diminished until our son draws his first breath.”
“So let me protect you, Little Red. Let me protect you as you have protected me.”
His midnight eyes pleaded with me, they begged for a trust that was difficult to give. But my Henry had earned my faith. I leaned into his touch as rough hands cupped my cheek. My eyes fluttered shut at the sensation. A single nod sealed our pact. I would trust him to protect as I grew the product of our love.
But an explosion drew our attention away from our perfect moment.
The Royals were trying to breach my warding again. No wolf could breach my blood barrier. Not without my leave. Even if the magic was weakened, no wolf would step foot across the barrier whilst my heart still beat, of that I was certain.
And yet the commotion drew closer. Far closer than the boundary of our home.
“Stay inside, Little Red. I shall return to you soon.” Henry kissed the top of my head and strode from the room, leaving me cold and wanting.
I paced as I waited. I paced the floor of our home and I fretted. I could still feel him, and there was no concern in his aura, just a mild confusion. Could he not find the intruders? What wolf could cross the barrier? What wolf could break my blood magic? It should be impossible.
Unless it wasn’t a wolf…
With a blink I vanished from our chambers and appeared in the centre of the grass meadow that bordered our land. I stood, and I waited, and I listened. Something wasn’t right. Something was very, very wrong.
“Hello, Anna.”
I knew that voice. I had not heard it in nearly ten years.
“Melly?” I called, wondering why my sister was in our lands, and why she hid herself from my sight.
“This insanity must end, Anna. The council may hesitate, but I cannot. You are not yourself, you have to stop this ridiculous conquest. Wash the blood from your hands and come home. I am begging you.”
I laughed. She must be joking. There was no earthly way she could be serious? I was doing this for her. We were fighting for her survival, for our survival. The humans were burning us, and the Royals were allowing it. I was fighting to protect her, as I always had done.
“Anna, you need to stop. If you do not stand down on your own, then I will have to make you.” Mellissa, my baby sister, shouted with such fervent venom I flinched at its bite. My confusion turned to rage that was laced with no small amount of incredulity.
My laugh turned high, almost shrill as I battled with the insanity of my sister’s gall.
“You were never strong enough to stand against me, sister. I have always been the strength of our family. I have always been the only one with any real power.”
“You were Anna. You were. But you and I both know that that is no longer the case, do we not?”
I recoiled. How did she know of my condition? How could she have known? She would threaten my child for fighting to protect her?
Henry! Our adversaries, they are not wolves, help me, my love! I need you!
Flames snaked up my arms and threaded themselves through my fingers. If it was a fight my sister wanted, she would not find in me the easy victory she hoped for.
“So be it.” She sighed.
She appeared in front of me, the bright green of her natural hair peaking through the brown we had worked through it to protect her from the humans and their fire. But she was not alone. More witches, eight witches, appeared alongside her. I was surrounded. But I would not be outmatched by witches of the earth.
My sister’s hands glowed and her vine-like roots of the land rose up to greet her as her friends fired their ridiculous hexes at me. I vanished, and let their pathetic rocks careen against each other, knocking one of the woeful idiots out instantly. Earth witches always stuck together, they travelled in packs like wolves; it was the only way they could ever be considered a threat. I unfurled my whip of fire and cracked it forward, allowing the slicing tendril to snap at the cheek of one of the fools, and set her screaming her agony as she dropped to the floor.
Ice shattered against my elbow and encased my lower arm and hand, extinguishing the flame and forcing a hiss from my lips. So Melly brought me a water witch. It seemed as though my sister had finally learned how to make friends. I tried to reignite my flame, but the ice was too cold. This witch had power, power that she was confident of.
I vanished again and appeared directly behind the watery bitch, lengthening my nails into fire tipped points that pierced her spine, and dropped her to the floor as I burned through her flesh. Her gasp told me I had effectively stolen the breath from her, but my sister’s friends had an extra surprise or two for me.
The air left my lungs, and no matter what I did, I could not draw breath. My eyes bulged as I sought the perpetrator, and my eyes found a white haired witch with light grey eyes and a vacant expression. She was of the air, and she was stealing mine. I could not call upon my fire whilst I could not breathe and I sank to my knees as I fought against the inevitable.
A sudden scratch across my arm drew blood, and the powerful water witch, already somehow recovered from my magic, was at my side, collecting my blood in a vial. Her smile told me all I needed to know.
She was going to drop my warding. She was going to let the wolves in.
No, no I couldn’t let that happen. They sought to undo everything we had worked for! They would tear it all down to hold on to their undeserved seat of power!
Henry! Please, my wolf, I need you now!
But the water witch disappeared, and rocks spurted from the ground, encaging my arms and keeping me on my knees as the white witch still refused to let me draw breath. Black spots darkened my vision. I needed to fær, I needed to get out of this, but my power was draining with each undrawn breath, and my strength waned. Still, I focussed everything I had on moving just a foot forward, I just needed to move a pace, away from the prison, and out of the sight of the white witch.
Just as I managed to summon enough strength to do it, a sharpened hand pierced my stomach and grasped my spine. Even my sister's ridiculous band of accomplices were horrified by this heinous act of betrayal. The white witch dropped her guard enough to allow me breath that returned in a scream.
My sister’s green eyes flashed a moment of regret at what she had done, but set themselves with a steely determination and self-righteousness that shattered my heart.
“ANNABELLA NO!” My Henry screamed for me, the gravel of his beautiful Mordred lending his own grief to his tone. Tears fell in spite of the cold fury in my soul that tried to force them back.
Mellissa ripped her bloodstained hand from within me, pulling me forward onto my stomach as a cacophony of growls and snarls shook the air around us.
“Pin her down.” Mellissa’s cold voice instructed her new found sisterhood.
Iron spikes pierced my flesh and rooted into the ground. I couldn’t even scream, I had lost the ability to create noise as grief stole my voice. Grief for the child who never knew life because of the sister I spent a lifetime protecting. A sister who’s hand pierced the flesh of my back to return my bone to her grasp, as if I could have færed anywhere with iron in my blood.
My Henry was close, I could feel him, he was coming for me, but he could not reach me. He roared his frustration as he tore his way through wolf after wolf, all of whom stood between us, keeping us apart.
Then suddenly, almost silently, something within me snapped.
A heart landed a breath away from my dirt covered face, as an ice filled my soul and despair rose within me before I had even figured out why. My Henry collapsed forward, his eyes still and staring and just within my sight. Thought escaped me. Breath refused to come, but the white haired witch was not the cause this time.
My husband’s bloodied heart was all I could focus on, the heart that swore to beat for me. The heart that had promised me forever. Seconds took centuries to pass as my own treacherous heart continued to beat, not believing what my eyes were telling it. The world elapsed into silence.
But when the gilded boot of the mongrel King crushed it with a splattering stamp, all the noise returned with a deafening, all encompassing brutality. Finally, finally, I screamed.
And my screams did not cease for five-hundred years.
